Gordon Hutchinson Concealed Carry Training

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The Great New Orleans Gun Grab

A searing expose' of the scandal of gun confiscations that occurred in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Lest we ever forget.

The Quest and the Quarry

A hunting story of the Deep South. How generations of kids from a farming family are taught the lessons of life through the experience of the hunt by one wise old grandfather, and a line of trophy bucks they pursue.

About Me

Author: "THE GREAT NEW ORLEANS GUN GRAB" (with Todd Masson), an expose' of the anarchy and outrageous behavior of civil authorities who confiscated thousands of guns from law-abiding citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Also the author of "THE QUEST AND THE QUARRY"--a southern novel of the hunt.
Firearms columnist for LOUISIANA, NORTH & SOUTH CAROLINA, and MISSISSIPPI SPORTSMAN magazines.
Founding Member of the
Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.
Training Officer and Spokesperson
for the Lunatic Fringe.
Unapologetic Gun Nut
(with apologies to David E. Petzal.) Former Airborne Infantry Officer (82nd Airborne Division.) Former law enforcement firearms instructor. Current concealed carry instructor.
gordonhutchinson.com

Katrina Survivors Take Arms

Jo Ann Guidos, owner of Kajun's Bar, stood off looters with her handguns, Remington 1100 shotgun, and a motley crew of regulars at her bar. They are shown here standing outside the bar a day or two before her guns were confiscated by U.S. Marshals as she was attempting to load her vehicles and get out of the madness of New Orleans. Photo courtesy of Jo Ann Guidos

"8 Bodies In Place"

These are the ubiquitous signs--the hex symbols of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Teams would spray the signs on the outside of buildings once they had been searched. At the top was the date of the search. On each side of the "X" was the numerical identifier of the unit conducting the search. At the bottom of the symbol was the number of bodies found in the building. In this case, eight people were found in Jo Ann Guido's bar. If the bodies were not alive, the more chilling "Dead" would be added under the number. Photo courtesy Jo Ann Guidos.

Followers

Friday, July 4, 2014

It happened again
at an afternoon barbeque a few months ago.
One new acquaintance commented he was looking at buying a new pistol.

“What caliber?”
Asked the other new acquaintance.

“I dunno,” first
guy said. “Nine millimeter, I think.”

“Huh,” sneered
second new acquaintance. “Just going to
tick him off.”

The first new guy
shrugged helplessly as if to say, “Well, what do I know. I bow to your superior
experience and ballistic knowledge.”

I generally try
to not comment when people make stupid statements about guns. It’s like arguing with a drunk or a dog. When it’s over, the guy will still be drunk,
and the dog will be confused.

But this fallacy
has become so entrenched in our gun culture, I can’t keep quiet—at least once
monthly someone makes a disparaging remark about the effectiveness of the 9MM
cartridge in handguns.

I try really hard
not to sound as smart-ass as the second guy when I comment—sometimes, I’m successful.

“Lessee,” I
chimed in at that moment. “That shooting
that occurred up there in Blacksburg, Virginia in 2007 at Virginia Tech. That South Korean nutcase, Seung-Hui Cho—he
killed 33 people with…oh yeah—a nine millimeter.”

The current
disaffection in this country with the 9MM pistol cartridge can be traced back
to the infamous Miami shootout in 1986 between two heavily armed armored truck and
bank robbers and the contingent of FBI agents that had been hunting them.

Armed with an
arsenal of weapons including a Ruger .223 semi-auto rifle, these two killers
had decided they would not be taken alive.

The resulting shootout
left two agents dead, several more severely wounded, and both perpetrators dead
from multiple gunshot wounds.

Probably no
gunfight, with the exception of the OK Corral, has been more thoroughly
dissected and reviewed, and its aftermath resulted in a sea change in the
manufacture of handgun ammunition.

The FBI centered
on the 9MM Winchester/Western Silvertip Hollowpoint fired at Michael Platt by
agent Jerry Dove (who was killed in the incident.)

Dove’s shot was
exceptional, putting the round through Platt’s right arm and into his chest
cavity where it stopped one inch from his heart. Had the round more power,
according to the research from the FBI, Platt’s heart would have been
penetrated, and his ability to carry on the gunfight (he took 12 rounds in all)
would have been about 30 seconds, instead of several more minutes during which
he killed two agents, and wounded five more.

We’re not going
to get into another dissection of this gunfight—go to your search engine and
type in “FBI Miami Shootout”—there’s even a You Tube cut of the made-for-TV
movie “In the Line of Duty—The FBI Murders” with a Hollywoodized version of the
shootout.

The FBI later
hosted the famous “Wound Ballistics Seminar” which resulted in the adoption by
that agency of the 10MM semi-auto round—basically a .41 Magnum in semi-auto
form—and the S&W Model 1076 pistol.

From this round
came the descendant .40 S&W which
became the rage in the mid-90’s of police departments across the U.S.

The book that
answered all questions and (to most ways of thinking) settled all arguments was
the 1992 “Handgun Stopping Power” by Evan Marshall and Ed Sanow.

The original book
studied shootings from a position never seriously reviewed before: actual documented street shootings.

The authors reviewed
thousands of shooting incidents, mainly by police officers across the country,
with some very exacting standards—only “one-shot stops” would be considered.

Their definition
of one-shot stops had several restrictions—but the basic stipulations were the
perpetrator could be hit only once in the torso, and if he moved, he could not
move more than 10 feet before he collapsed, unable to continue the attack. Multiple shots were not considered. From this mass of data, the authors worked up
percentage tables of one-shot stops on every common form of handgun
ammunition. The results for 9MM were
fascinating:

At the bottom of
the list of 17 different rounds was the W-W 115 grain FMJ (Full Metal
Jacket). With 148 shootings reviewed,
it had an average muzzle velocity of 1149 FPS, and 90 one-shot stops for a
percentage of 60.81.

At the top of the
list was the Federal 115 grain JHP (Jacketed Hollow Point) +P+. With 56 total shootings, and an average
muzzle velocity of 1304 FPS, it had 50 one-shot stops and a percentage of 89.28.

The second most
effective round was the W-W 115 JHP +P+ with an average muzzle velocity of 1299
FPS, 51 shootings, 45 one-shot stops, and a percentage factor of 88.23.

The FBI Miami
Shootout and the resulting Wound Ballistic Seminar resulted in vast amounts of
research being poured into handgun ammunition stopping power, and the
effectiveness of such has been immeasurably improved because of these incidents
and actions.

But the fact
remains that a handgun is a tool best used to hold them off until you can get
to a rifle or shotgun—NO handgun round will have the devastating tissue damage
and resulting incapacitation of a centerfire rifle or shotgun.

That being said,
the 9MM remains the choice of handgun caliber across the world for many law
enforcement and military organizations.
Of course any more powerful, faster, heavier cartridge—the choices are
endless—may have a better chance of stopping an attacker, but as most experts
will tell you, bullet placement has a heck of a lot more to do with
effectiveness than choice of caliber or bullet.

I personally like
9MM and own several different semiautomatics in that caliber. I carry them concealed all the time. I like the fact that smaller pistols with
large capacities have been designed around the caliber, and I like the fact the
ammunition is available practically everywhere, and comparably cheap practice
ammo allows me to shoot regularly without taking out a bank loan.

Remember—the best
gun to have in a gunfight is the gun you bring TO the gunfight. If you feel comfortable with a particular
design of 9MM, don’t let the naysayers dissuade you. I’d rather shoot someone
with a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with 00 pellets, if I want to absolutely do the
most damage and stop them the fastest.

Unfortunately,
it’s a little hard to strap a 12 gauge on my hip and cover it with a shirt or
jacket. In turn, I’ll carry my compact
9MM with 13 rounds of +P+ hollowpoints—and strike out into the unknown feeling
only a little less protected.

---END---

Gordon Hutchinson is the senior licensed
concealed carry instructor in Louisiana.
For more guns, shooting, and concealed carry info, go to his
website: www.gordonhutchinson.com

58 comments:

Para-Carry-Man
said...

Gordon, I took your class in 2010, and there is one thing you said that I've come back to time and time again in the "caliber wars" with the under-educated whose knowledge originates from the greasy faced high school kid behind the gun counter at Academy who told him one time that anything other than 357 sig or 10 mm was worthless. We were talking about caliber choices for concealed carry, and in reference to .22 caliber pistols you said, "If that's what you want to do, for for it. It's not what I recommend, but I promise you 5 or 6 rounds of .22 LR to the chest is gonna screw somebody's day up." I would hazard a bet that it certainly would. First and foremost, the gun that you have and can shoot well will be a million times more effective than your hands alone at deterring someone who wants to do you harm, and that is regardless of what caliber it is or whether it's a semi-auto, revolver, or lil ol pea shooter. That's something that these people miss time and time again. I also agree with your weight vs round count analysis. I've got a beautiful Para Carry LDA in .45 ACP, but for its weight, I get 7 shots, and it's a 40 ounce boat anchor when it's loaded. For 2 ounces less, a Glock 19 will hold 16 rounds, more than double the firepower. Not that significant when it's 1 on 1, but you know as well as I do people rarely fight so fair these days. Sorry to rant, I just needed to get all of that out to someone who I knew would understand. Thank you tremendously for all that you do.

Gordon, I took your class in 2010, and there is one thing you said that I've come back to time and time again in the "caliber wars" with the under-educated whose knowledge originates from the greasy faced high school kid behind the gun counter at Academy who told him one time that anything other than 357 sig or 10 mm was worthless. We were talking about caliber choices for concealed carry, and in reference to .22 caliber pistols you said, "If that's what you want to do, for for it. It's not what I recommend, but I promise you 5 or 6 rounds of .22 LR to the chest is gonna screw somebody's day up." I would hazard a bet that it certainly would. First and foremost, the gun that you have and can shoot well will be a million times more effective than your hands alone at deterring someone who wants to do you harm, and that is regardless of what caliber it is or whether it's a semi-auto, revolver, or lil ol pea shooter. That's something that these people miss time and time again. I also agree with your weight vs round count analysis. I've got a beautiful Para Carry LDA in .45 ACP, but for its weight, I get 7 shots, and it's a 40 ounce boat anchor when it's loaded. For 2 ounces less, a Glock 19 will hold 16 rounds, more than double the firepower. Not that significant when it's 1 on 1, but you know as well as I do people rarely fight so fair these days. Sorry to rant, I just needed to get all of that out to someone who I knew would understand. Thank you tremendously for all that you do.

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